r and farther apart, and so high that
I could hardly see the tips. After a time I got out of the almost level
forest into ground ridged and hollowed, and found it advisable to turn
more to the right. On the sunny southern slopes I saw trees that dwarfed
the ones on the colder and shady north sides. I also found many small
pines and seedlings growing in warm, protected places. This showed me
the value of the sun to a forest. Though I kept a lookout for deer or
game of any kind, I saw nothing except some black squirrels with white
tails. They were beautiful and very tame, and one was nibbling at what I
concluded must have been a seed from a pine-cone.

Presently I fancied that I espied a moving speck far down through the
forest glades. I stopped Hal, and, watching closely, soon made certain
of it. Then it became lost for a time, but reappeared again somewhat
closer. It was like a brown blur and scarcely moved. I reined Hal more
to the right. Not for quite a while did I see the thing again, and when
I did it looked so big and brown that I took up my Winchester. Then it
disappeared once more.

I descended into a hollow, and tying Hal, I stole forward on foot,
hoping by that means to get close to the strange object without being
seen myself.

I waited behind a pine, and suddenly three horsemen rode across a glade
not two hundred yards away. The foremost rider was no other than the
Mexican whom I had reason to remember.

The huge trunk amply concealed me, but, nevertheless, I crouched down.
How strange that I should run into that Mexican again! Where was he
going? Had he followed me? Was there a trail?

As long as the three men were in sight I watched them. When the last
brown speck had flitted and disappeared far away in the forest I
retraced my steps to my mustang, pondering upon this new turn in my
affairs.

"Things are bound to happen to me," I concluded, "and I may as well make
up my mind to that."

While standing beside Hal, undecided as to my next move, I heard a
whistle. It was faint, perhaps miles away, yet unmistakably it was the
whistle of an engine. I wondered if the railroad turned round this side
of the peaks. Mounting Hal, I rode down the forest to the point where I
had seen the men, and there came upon a trail. I proceeded along this
in the direction the men had taken. I had come again to the slow-rising
level that I had noted earlier in my morning's journey. After several
miles a light or opening in